Solving all the problems.

What we talked about

• The origins of managed WordPress hosting
• Serving a niche in a crowded space
• Find your differentiators that set you apart from the competition
• Empowering others (teammates) to make decisions and take responsibility for the outcome
• Working through explosive topics (i.e. politics) with your team
• Expressing opinion as a company vs an individual
• Joshua shares what inspires him

What we talked about

• Going from solo owner/operator to a partnership
• Accountability in a partnership
• Inbound marketing
• Engaging with your site visitors
• Serving up content based on who's looking
• How to get someone into your marketing funnel

Marketing is simply building trust and empathy with a group of people by talking to them. - Paul Jarvis

What we talked about

• Email marketing as two-way communication
• We hate marketing because we don't understand it
• Alienate most people in order to get the right people on your email list
• Unless there's engagement, having a huge list is meaningless
• Email automation doesn't have to be intimidating
• Getting started with email marketing

Episode links

• Paul Jarvis on Twitter
• Paul Jarvis website (and newsletter signup)
• Sunday Dispatches podcast
• Invisible Office Hours podcast
• Chimp Essentials (course)

What We Talked About

• Freelancing "back in the day"
• Turning a passion into a revenue stream
• Opportunities to systematize repetitive tasks
• Opportunities to upsell clients (while offering great value)
• Quarterly "temperature" calls
• Defining your ideal client (and evolving that over time)
• Taking time away from work to work on your business
• Self/soul searching to figure out what it is we want to work on

What we talked about

• Setting financial stretch goals (and achieving them)
• The power of saying your goals "out loud"
• Investing in your business
• Serving a micro-niche vs a general client base (and how that can help with content strategy)
• The value and importance of live industry events

What we talked about

• Getting out from behind the computer and meeting folk
• Expressing yourself through content
• Having a professional online persona
• Getting into the habit of writing with directive journaling v 
• Brainstorming content
• Promoting your content (and others)

What we talked about

• Being different in a crowded space
• Internalizing what others are doing and then innovating on it
• Copying someone's motivation vs copying someone's results
• Be the freelancer that answers the phone!
• If your offer isn't interesting and compelling, get a job and learn new things
• Risk dynamic as a freelancer vs an employee
• Go deep, not wide

What we talked about

• How to do your own content marketing by making a brand plan
• What to do if you started blogging before you had a brand plan
• The backstory behind Pamela's new book, Master Content Marketing
• Writing (confidently) even if you don't feel like a "writer"
• Content marketing as a creative act
• Education through content

What we talked about

You will never get the complete story from an email or a Slack message. - Karim Marucchi

• Account management for small agencies and freelancers
• Using account management as business development
• Differences between an account manager and a project manager
• Coming across to your clients as the expert
• The importance of "face time" vs email
• Using email as a followup to a conversation, not the conversation itself
• Tips for composure and "positive control" in tough conversations
• How to make client delays work in your favor

What we talked about

• The isolation and anxiety many freelancers feel
• Online relationships vs real-world friends
• How to make connections online
• Being your true self online without oversharing
• Active listening
• Mental health maintenance
• How to find the right therapist
• Yoga!

What we talked about

• Benefits and challenges of serving a specific vertical niche
• Custom theme builds vs commercial
• Differentiating yourself in a crowded market
• Sustainable pricing
• Consolidation/tightening of the WordPress ecosystem
• Improving the "WordPress experience"

What we talked about

• Educating prospective clients
• The unique challenge of offering services in a small community
• Preparing for seasonality (the lows and highs)
• Working locally (vs digitally)
• Goal setting
• Building monthly recurring client revenue

What we talked about

• White-labeling plugins
• Terrible plugin ideas
• GPL & software licensing
• A Black Friday rant about Envato
• Sustainable product sales
• The WordPress community outside the US

What we talked about

• WordCamp US and the Patheon drama
• GoDaddy's year of acquisitions and partnerships
• LoopConf in 2017
• WordPress 4.7 & REST API
• What's up with Calypso?
• Do we need to learn JavaScript deeply?
• Backend vs Front-end developers
• Tips from the panel

Here's some of what we talked about:

• Working in a partnership
• Serving a niche audience
• Vetting clients
• Maintenance plans
• Design inspiration

Season 3 of OfficeHours.FM is here! My panel of guests includes Rebecca Gill, Diane Kinney, and Matt Medeiros. Sometimes irreverent, sometimes serious, we cover the WIX GPL debate, subscription-based business models, and the impact of the REST API on businesses.

This week I’ve got Beka Rice, Operations Manager for SkyVerge, Leading Contributor at Sell with WP, and Content Manager for Shop Storm. Somehow she manages to have free time and in that free time she’s traveling the world with her husband, eating at Chipotles along the way. On this final episode of Season 2, join us for a lively discussion on e-commerce in WordPress, what the product development process looks like for WooCommerce, and the unique challenges of working while traveling.

Travis VandeNoord